appeal

Prosecutors say sentence was 'shockingly' lenient, want more jail time than 6 years

(Newser) -
South African prosecutors announced their intention to appeal against Oscar Pistorius' six-year jail sentence for murder on Thursday, calling it "shockingly" lenient and a decision that could bring the country's justice system into "disrepute," the AP reports. The announcement prolongs the 3.5-year legal saga of...
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She won an appeal regarding her late daughter's frozen eggs

(Newser) -
A 60-year-old woman from the UK who's been in a protracted legal battle to become pregnant using her dead daughter's frozen eggs has made some progress toward winning that fight, the BBC reports. After not being able to find a British clinic that would implant her with the...
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Judges uphold above-guidelines sentence

(Newser) -
A federal appeals court rejected former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle's appeal of his sentence of more than 15 years in prison Thursday for child pornography offenses and illicit sexual conduct with a child, the AP reports. A three-judge panel of the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the...
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Alibi witness will finally get to testify

(Newser) -
Adnan Syed, the Maryland man whose murder conviction is the subject of the hit podcast Serial, has scored a major court victory in his quest for a retrial. The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that a lower court should hear testimony from Asia McClain, a witness who says she...
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Joyce Bruce said because they never had sex, she should be sole parent

(Newser) -
In Joyce Bruce's mind, Robert Boardwine was just an old friend who helpfully agreed to donate sperm so she could have a child—no parental rights attached. To Boardwine, however, and now according to a Virginia court, he's entitled to see his young son, CNN reports. The Virginia...
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Maryland court grants appeal to Adnan Syed

(Newser) -
Adnan Syed, the Maryland man whose murder conviction as a teenager made headlines thanks to the popularity of the Serial podcast, will get an appeal. Syed was convicted of murdering ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999, and the podcast told his story—including an interview with Asia McClain, a former...
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Sudan appeals court reportedly steps in

(Newser) -
A Sudanese court has voided the death sentence for Meriam Ibrahim and ordered her release, the country's SUNA news service reported today. Ibrahim had been sentenced to 100 lashes and hanging because she refused to renounce her Christian faith, in a case that has drawn international attention. Her lawyer...
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Solicitors should have respected her Catholic faith, she says

(Newser) -
A divorce means the end of marriage, right? Well, a British woman was apparently shocked to hear about this, the Independent reports. Jane Mulcahy even filed suit against her former lawyers for failing to explain the whole divorce thing. Mulcahy said they should have respected her Catholic faith and advised...
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Protests erupted after Alexei Navalny jailed

(Newser) -
After a leading critic of Vladimir Putin was handed a 5-year sentence for embezzlement yesterday, protests erupted across Russia, prompting a reported 200 arrests. Thousands of people gathered on the main street to the Kremlin, yelling "freedom!" amid honking cars, the Guardian reports. Today demonstrators got their wish,...
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New information could discredit witness for prosecution

(Newser) -
Two years after Ingmar Guandique was found guilty of the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy, mysterious new information that could undermine a prosecution witness has reportedly emerged—and it's apparently so serious that lawyers on both sides have met in secret hearings, reports USA Today . With court proceedings sealed,...
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Frees defendant after 23 years in prison

(Newser) -
A federal judge yesterday overturned the decades-old murder conviction of a Brooklyn man, lambasting the trial judge's decisions as "incomprehensible," the jury's conclusion as "bewildering," the man's lawyers as "indolent and ill prepared," and the prosecutors as "overzealous and deceitful....
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Simpson's new lawyer: old lawyer did a bad job

(Newser) -
OJ Simpson's robbery-and-kidnapping case isn't quite over after all, Radar reports. Now serving 9 to 33 years in a Nevada prison, the ex-football star has himself a new lawyer who persuaded a judge to reopen the case. Their argument: Simpson's former lawyer, Yale Galanter, was paid over...
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A rundown of cases the court refused to hear as new session open

(Newser) -
The new Supreme Court term, which begins today, won't include a review of TSA body scanners: Justices have refused to take on a man's appeal in a case against the machines, which was also dismissed by federal courts in Florida and Washington, the AP reports. Nor will justices...
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Lawyer alleges juror misconduct, bias, evidence problems

(Newser) -
Scott Peterson is still protesting his innocence in the murder of pregnant wife Laci in 2002, and has filed an automatic appeal of his death sentence with the California Supreme Court. Peterson was sentenced in 2004 after a highly publicized trial, and his lawyer argues in the 423-page document that...
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Joe Amendola's comments shock fellow defense attorneys

(Newser) -
Jerry Sandusky's loose-lipped lawyer may have unwittingly given his client extra ammunition for an appeal, the New York Post reports. Convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, Sandusky is facing up to 442 years in prison—but fellow defense attorneys say remarks by lawyer Joe Amendola were unconscionable....
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Must appeal entire verdict, including life sentence

(Newser) -
An Egyptian official says the top prosecutor will appeal the verdict in Hosni Mubarak's trial, which acquitted the former leader and his two sons on corruption charges and cleared senior police officers of complicity in killing protesters during last year's uprising. The prosecutor must appeal the entire verdict,...
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Despite dramatic change in cause of toddler's death

(Newser) -
The medical examiner changed her opinion on the cause of a toddler's death, but the Supreme Court won't consider giving the man convicted in the child's death a new trial. The high court today refused, without comment, to hear an appeal from Neil Hampton Robbins, convicted in...
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Murder conviction overturned, she and Sollecito walk free

(Newser) -
Amanda Knox's four-year quest to prove her innocence in the murder of Meredith Kercher has come to its dramatic conclusion, with an Italian appeals court today overturning her 26-year prison sentence. Knox appeared extremely emotional while awaiting the verdict, and broke down completely as a judge announced it, reports...
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Knox's defense gets boost from DNA report

(Newser) -
Independent experts are disputing much of the forensic evidence collected against Amanda Knox, saying in a report today that some of the DNA traces used to convict Knox and Raffaele Sollecito may have been contaminated. Knox's defense had eagerly been awaiting the review's conclusions, and hope it boosts...
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